“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10: 5 KJV).
A Christian cannot live a responsible Christian life if they are irresponsible in their thinking. If there is no sanctification and discipline in the practical life, it is because there is no sanctification or discipline in the thought life. A Christian is not taking seriously the life they live for Christ until they take seriously the way they think of Christ— “What think ye of Christ?” (Mt. 22: 42). The Christian cannot be obedient to Christ and honor Him in their practical life if their thoughts are not obedient to Him and honorable to Him. Christ will never be Lord of our practical life if He is not first and foremost Lord of our thought life.
The mind, heart, inner man, and spirit is the repository of knowledge. Our knowledge of God comes from the Scriptures. Everything we might imagine or think that exalts itself against this knowledge is to be cast down, and we are to bring every thought to obedience to the facts about Christ. All our thoughts are to be formed, and our thought process or train of thought is to be Christ honoring.
Someone might say, “I don’t mind God telling me how to live and what to do, but I do mind Him telling me what to think.” Such an individual must consider the fact that the quality and direction of our life comes from the quality and direction of our thoughts. Our true character is found in the character of our thoughts. As we think in our hearts, so are we (Proverbs 23: 7).
We can not think one way and live another way. We may for a while put on a mask and pretend to be something we aren’t, but eventually, our true self bleeds out from behind our mask, and we are found to be pretenders. We can’t think like a devil and live the life of Jesus Christ. We can’t continue once we’re saved to think like a lost man and live the life of Jesus Christ.
When we get saved, we receive the Spirit of Christ. But in order to live the life of Christ, we must form the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2: 16; Phil. 2: 5). Romans 12: 2 tells us that the way the Christian is transformed into the likeness of Jesus is through the renewing of the mind or by changing the way they think.
Since the way we live is the result of the way we think, we must first change the way we think if we are to change the way we live. To do that, we must take the responsibility of our thought life and bring it under control and into compliance with the word of God (Philippians 4: 8 et al.). We must think responsibly if we’re to act responsibly.
